AP U.S. Government topic quiz4 questions

5.5 Third-Party Politics

Choose the best answer, check your reasoning, and use the explanation to correct any gap.

Question 1

Question 1 of 4

Populists won limited national office but made railroad regulation, currency policy, and political reform harder for major parties to ignore; later major-party and Progressive programs adopted portions of that agenda. Which form of minor-party influence is most directly illustrated?

Populists influenced the agenda by making demands visible that major parties and later reformers partly absorbed. That is influence without replacement or public authority. A spoiler claim would require evidence about a close result and voters' next preferences; no proportional rule is described.
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D. Agenda influence through introduction and absorption of neglected demands

Populists influenced the agenda by making demands visible that major parties and later reformers partly absorbed. That is influence without replacement or public authority. A spoiler claim would require evidence about a close result and voters' next preferences; no proportional rule is described.

Question 2

Question 2 of 4

A minor party receives twelve percent of the vote across many single-member plurality districts but wins no seats. In the next election, some supporters vote for a less-preferred major party because they expect the minor candidate to lose. The first result and the later behavior illustrate, respectively,

The failure of twelve percent of votes to produce seats is the mechanical effect of single-member plurality allocation. Supporters then anticipate that penalty and coordinate around a viable major party, which is the psychological effect. Ballot access concerns reaching the ballot, while a spoiler effect concerns changing a close winner.
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A. a mechanical effect and a psychological effect

The failure of twelve percent of votes to produce seats is the mechanical effect of single-member plurality allocation. Supporters then anticipate that penalty and coordinate around a viable major party, which is the psychological effect. Ballot access concerns reaching the ballot, while a spoiler effect concerns changing a close winner.

Question 3

Question 3 of 4

Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats become less common as voters increasingly choose the party matching views they already held. Average party positions move farther apart even though many individuals have not become more extreme. Which interpretation is strongest?

Sorting makes ideology and party label fit more consistently, reducing cross-pressured categories such as liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. That compositional change can widen the distance between party averages even when many individuals do not move toward extremes. Affective polarization concerns social dislike, negative partisanship concerns motivation against the rival, and divided government concerns institutional control.
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B. Sorting can increase measured party polarization without requiring broad individual movement toward ideological extremes

Sorting makes ideology and party label fit more consistently, reducing cross-pressured categories such as liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. That compositional change can widen the distance between party averages even when many individuals do not move toward extremes. Affective polarization concerns social dislike, negative partisanship concerns motivation against the rival, and divided government concerns institutional control.

Question 4

Question 4 of 4

Jordan votes for her party's nominee chiefly to prevent the opposing party from winning. She also says she would be uncomfortable if a close family member married a supporter of that opposing party. The first reaction and the second are best classified, respectively, as

Voting chiefly to stop the rival is negative partisanship: opposition supplies the motivation. Discomfort with a family relationship involving an opposing partisan is affective polarization because it measures social distance. Sorting concerns coalition alignment, and ideological polarization concerns policy distance rather than interpersonal feeling.
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C. negative partisanship and affective polarization

Voting chiefly to stop the rival is negative partisanship: opposition supplies the motivation. Discomfort with a family relationship involving an opposing partisan is affective polarization because it measures social distance. Sorting concerns coalition alignment, and ideological polarization concerns policy distance rather than interpersonal feeling.

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